todays contest 3-10-12

[edog743]

The seemingly impossible has happened again. 240,000 point dealt royal. This getting quite sickening. Not so impossible both achieved by non-gold members. That does not suprise me at all.

[Webman]

I think it's been explained in the past, but a dealt royal flush is special in Double Super Times Pay. You automatically get the full 20x multiplier if there is any multiplier on the deal at the same time as a dealt royal. Quite the jackpot, and because of the special exception, it happens much more often than getting a 20x the hard way (which is incredibly rare).

[Webman]

Also, the current leader is a Gold member.

[edog743]

The multiplier can come up anywhere in the deal. The way you explained it sounds as though the game knows it is going to deal a royal flush. Kinda blows all the explanations about the random number generators out of the water. So in the contest there were two dealt royals. Very interesting that the second one went to a gold member after my post earlier in the day. Kinda makes a guy wonder. Also in a previous post webman you mentioned people having a perfect play program running does that not constitute cheating?

[Webman]

The way I understand it, in all Super Times Pay games, multipliers and the 5 cards are determined at the start of the deal.   Then they are displayed on the screen. The odds of a multiplier occurring have nothing to do with the position in which the multiplier appears.As for people having a perfect play program running, we don't have any rules against that. The reason should be obvious... there is no way to recognize or enforce it. If you want to run Video Poker for Winners in a separate window when you play in the contest, I say go for it.Naturally, that won't help in getting a dealt royal flush. But it might help improve your average score. The best side effect would be you would be learning as you play, which is always a good thing.As for any conspiracy theories about the 20x royals, I'll ask you to determine the odds of a dealt 20x royal in this game (given the dealt royal exception), then we can determine how unlikely they really are and how frequently they should be expected. All the necessary numbers to calculate this are public information. If the number of occurrences we see in contests is greatly different than what should be mathematically expected, we can explore that further.

[edog743]

Ok just so I understand this a dealt royal is a predetermined deal. The multiplier is a whole diiferent thing or is it every time you are dealt a royal it is going to 20x. are the draw cards predetermined also? 

[Webman]

That word "predetermined" is a loaded word here, obviously. Think of it as shuffling an actual deck of cards to deal a poker hand. The shuffle is random, then you deal 5 cards off the top. Were those 5 cards "predetermined?" Sort of... they were determined during the shuffle, BEFORE you saw them. But they were not determined before the shuffle. They are random. I can see how this might be hard to understand how this translates to machines without any programming
knowledge. It's also speculation on my part about how the sequencing in the machines works,
but as a programmer I believe it's probably accurate:1) Machine RANDOMLY selects 5 cards for the deal2) Machine RANDOMLY determines whether a multiplier will occur on this hand3) The above are then displayed for the user3b) If the cards are a dealt royal flush, auto-hold all 5 cards. If not, proceed to step 4.4) User determines what they would like to hold5) Draw cards are RANDOMLY selected from the remaining cards in the deck6) Draw cards are displayed for the userA dealt royal is not a "predetermined deal" any more than any other hand. The evaluation happens AFTER the deal cards and multiplier are RANDOMLY selected by the machine, then the program displays those cards and multiplier for the user to see and make their selection.The only difference for Double Super Times Pay would be: 1) Machine RANDOMLY selects 5 cards for the deal2) Machine RANDOMLY determines whether a multiplier will occur on this hand3) The above are then displayed for the user3b) If 5 cards are a dealt royal AND a deal multiplier is present, set multiplier to 20x and auto-hold the cards. If not, proceed to 4.4) User determines what they would like to hold5) Draw cards are RANDOMLY selected from the remaining cards in the deck5b) Machine RANDOMLY determines whether a DRAW multiplier will occur on this hand6) Draw cards (and multiplier) are displayed for the user

[edog743]

I thought about using a perfect play program. Which to me is still cheating. I have thought better of it.  In the very very unlikely chance of me winning. After this past sunday I am convinced my winning the daily contest is never going to happen.  I will just muddle along hoping and praying for a random entry into the tournament of champions.

[New2vp]

Since there is only one entry in each daily contest for having the high score and only one entry is drawn randomly, I would estimate that someone who plays better than the average entrant actually has a slightly better chance of winning a daily contest than being the randomly selected entry.  Of course, both of those chances are quite small.

[Webman]

Your best chance at winning the random entry is to play all 800 hands (to earn 8 entries in the drawing).That's also your best chance at getting the top score, of course.Your most important decision in going for top score (perhaps more important than hold strategy at first) is deciding which game to play. Someone won yesterday with Deuces. That doesn't happen a lot. Some games will give you a much better "edge" over the competition than others. That doesn't mean % return in the case of a contest, but odds of hitting a jackpot. Naturally, making the right holds will also help if you end up in a close race at the top.So smarts definitely give you an advantage in a lot of ways.